Sun Life Financial Inc (SLF)

Price$80.97Cached quoteAs of 2026-09-05 06:48 UTC

AI: Fair-priced

Price checkAfter climbing about a third over the past year, the shares look fairly priced rather than cheap.

The stock has gained roughly a third over the past year and sits near the top of its twelve-month range. Buyers now pay about nineteen times the company's reported yearly earnings per share, or roughly thirteen times forecast earnings, and about 2.3 times its accounting net worth. That is a full price for a business earning a 19% return on shareholder equity, though not an extreme one. Recent analyst targets range from clearly below to comfortably above today's level, which is why the fairest call here is fairly priced.

Big pictureSun Life is a diversified insurer and money manager whose profits keep growing across Canada, the United States, and Asia.

Sun Life manages about 1.7 trillion dollars for customers and sells insurance, retirement, and health products on three continents. Full-year profit reached 3.55 billion Canadian dollars last year, up 13% from the year before. In the latest quarter Canada earned 427 million before one-time items, the United States 227 million, Asia 222 million, with asset management close behind. The five-year record shows swings — profit once topped four billion, then dipped near three billion when markets slumped — so diversification softens cycles but does not remove them.

Business strengthProfits are durable and well funded: payouts consume only half of ongoing earnings while spare capital stays ample.

Insurers must hold a regulator-set cushion against policy promises; Sun Life's cushion stands at 145%, comfortably above requirements, though down from 151% a year earlier. Borrowing rose too — the debt-to-capital ratio climbed to 23.8% from 20.4% after the company bought out partners in its alternatives arm. Shareholder returns remain disciplined: last year's 2.06 billion in dividends equaled about half of ongoing earnings, and buybacks trimmed the share count by roughly 2.5%, quietly compounding each remaining holder's slice.

What could change the storyContinued double-digit profit growth justifies today's price; renewed customer exits from its mutual funds would undermine it.

The main worry is its Boston-based mutual fund unit, which suffered 22.9 billion US dollars of net customer withdrawals in the latest quarter, worse than the 14.3 billion a year earlier; strong inflows into private credit and pension mandates kept the whole firm's net flows positive. Because fees depend on asset values, a market slump would hit both earnings and reported capital, as happened when yearly profit fell from over four billion to under three billion. Watch whether total client flows stay positive and ongoing earnings keep growing double digits.

AI: News

Strong second-quarter beatQuarterly profit from core operations rose 11% to 1.12 billion dollars, beating expectations and prompting several analysts to raise targets.

About two weeks ago Sun Life reported core net income of 1.12 billion Canadian dollars, up 11% from a year earlier, with core per-share earnings up 13%, group insurance sales up 27%, and reported profit up 41% on favorable market moves. The result landed roughly five percent ahead of analyst forecasts. Several brokers raised their price targets afterward, yet their ratings spanned buy to underweight — meaning expert views straddle today's quote. How much recent share strength reflects these results versus wider market gains is uncertain.

Mutual fund outflows widenCustomers again pulled heavily from its Boston mutual fund business, pressuring future fee income even as other units attracted new money.

In the quarter reported two weeks ago, the MFS fund unit saw net withdrawals of 22.9 billion US dollars, up from 14.3 billion a year earlier, led by retail investors leaving stock funds. Institutional mandates in private credit and pension solutions brought enough new money that the overall asset-management arm still took in 1.5 billion US dollars net. Persistent outflows matter because fund fees are a high-margin income stream; sustained redemptions would slowly shrink future profits even if markets stay calm.

Asia wealth platform launchThe company launched a private wealth platform for Asia's rich, aiming to turn insurance clients into wealth-management customers.

Earlier this summer, media reported the launch of a global private wealth platform aimed at Asia's growing population of wealthy individuals, who often use insurance products to protect and pass on fortunes. The move builds on the company's strongest regional engine — Asian core profit rose 18% last quarter on Hong Kong momentum. Success would deepen recurring fee income and diversify away from mature North American markets, though competition in Hong Kong is already squeezing margins on newly sold policies.

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	2025	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016
Revenue	$41.90B	$38.80B	$40.94B	$5.77B	$35.69B	$43.34B	$39.68B	$27.00B	$29.33B	$28.57B
Operating expenses	$12.82B	$12.06B	$10.79B	$9.07B	$8.58B	$7.40B	$7.03B	$6.43B	$6.41B	$6.00B
Net income	$3.78B	$3.30B	$3.47B	$3.08B	$4.37B	$2.79B	$2.95B	$2.91B	$2.49B	$2.83B
Net profit margin	9.03%	8.50%	8.47%	53.39%	12.25%	6.44%	7.43%	10.79%	8.48%	9.89%
Basic EPSper basic share	CA$6.17	CA$5.27	CA$5.27	CA$4.90	CA$6.72	CA$4.11	CA$4.42	CA$4.16	CA$3.51	CA$4.05
Diluted EPSper diluted share	CA$6.15	CA$5.26	CA$5.26	CA$4.89	CA$6.69	CA$4.10	CA$4.40	CA$4.14	CA$3.49	CA$4.03

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Owners

Reported shareholders

Reference date Jun 30, 2026

Reported holdings Number of shares

View holders

Top 20 reported holders of SLF
Holder	Shares held
ROYAL BANK OF CANADA	41.55M
VANGUARD CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLC	16.05M
BANK OF MONTREAL /CAN/	12.23M
TD Asset Management Inc	10.1M
CIBC WORLD MARKET INC.	8.08M
1832 Asset Management L.P.	7.97M
BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA	6.93M
GEODE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, LLC	6.46M
NORGES BANK	6.37M
MACKENZIE FINANCIAL CORP	6.24M
FMR LLC	6M
FIL Ltd	5.92M
NATIONAL BANK OF CANADA /FI/	5.85M
TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.	5.51M
Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec	5.32M
VANGUARD FIDUCIARY TRUST CO	4.91M
Vanguard Global Advisers, LLC	4.28M
CIBC Asset Management Inc	3.84M
MANUFACTURERS LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, THE	3.74M
CANADA PENSION PLAN INVESTMENT BOARD	3.74M

Bars compare reported share counts. A matching total for this share class and reporting period is unavailable, so percentages are not shown.

Source: SEC Form 13F ↗Updated Sep 29, 2026 · Quarterly data

Insider buys & sells

Jul 1, 2024–Jun 30, 2026

Buys0$0.00 disclosed value

Sells (SEC code S)0$0.00 disclosed value

No insider transactions transactions were reported in the stored SEC coverage.

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